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Dr Sylvia Earle: first patron of SST

Posted on Sep 10

Sylvia Earle is the Sustainable Seas Trust’s first International Patron. It is unlikely that anyone else on the planet is better suited than Sylvia to be an active inspirational figurehead for SST. She is internationally applauded as the ambassador-at-large to the world's oceans. She is also without question one of the world’s most respected biologists, conservationists and oceanographers. Her diving exploits are legendary.

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Dr Sylvia Earle has been a major influence and guiding force for Sustainable Seas Trust (SST) from its inception, as she was a Founding Trustee. But in 2012 the Board of Trustees decided to develop a Board of Patrons and invited Sylvia to be the leading International Patron. We are delighted that Sylvia accepted the step up from a trustee to a patron.

If you do not know about Sylvia, then simply type Sylvia Earle into Google and be amazed by her undersea exploration and achievements, and indeed her passion as she calls upon people from all parts of the globe to help conserve the world's fragile and rapidly deteriorating ocean ecosystems. You do need to see and listen to her speech when she accepted the TED Award. Watch here

Sylvia, like Jane Goodall, holds the prestigious position as National Geographic Explorer in Residence.In their profile of Sylvia (Read Here), the National Geographic Society begins by focusing on some of the popular perspectives of Sylvia such as the manner in which she was, called "Her Deepness" by the New Yorker and the New York Times, "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress. She has also been referred to as "The Sturgeon General" and she was named by Time Magazine as the “First Hero for the Planet”. She has won accolades as an oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer with experience as a field research scientist. She is also executive director for corporate and nonprofit organisations, including the Aspen Institute, the Conservation Fund, American Rivers, Mote Marine Laboratory, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Rutgers Institute for Marine Science, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and Ocean Conservancy. And, of course, she is the International Patron of Sustainable Seas Trust.

She held the highest research responsibility for the oceans in the United States when she was chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Sylvia Earle is founder of the Mission Blue Foundation and chair of the Advisory Council for the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. She has a Ph.D. from Duke University, and 15 honorary degrees. She has authored more than 150 scientific, technical, and popular publications, lectured in more than 60 countries, and appeared in hundreds of television productions.

Sylvia has authored books on the ocean, including Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans and, most recently, Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas, with Linda K. Glover. Nothing appeals to Sylvia more than diving and interacting with the sea and its creatures, which she calls “critters”, and conducting underwater research. Not surprisingly, therefore, she has led more than 60 major expeditions and logged more than 7,000 hours underwater, including leading the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project in 1970 who spent 14 days underwater. She set a record for solo diving to a depth of 1,000 meters. Her research concerns marine ecosystems with special reference to exploration and the development and use of new technologies for access and effective operations in the deep sea and other remote environments.

Sylvia is the recipient of a huge number of honours, including the Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark, inclusion in the National Women's Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Achievement, and medals from the Explorers Club, the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, the Lindbergh Foundation, the National Wildlife Federation, Sigma Xi, Barnard College, the New England Aquarium, the Seattle Aquarium, the Society of Women

Sylvia Earle has indicated that she will join the Saldanha to Sodwana SEA Pledge Tour of April/May 2013 which is superb news.Geographers, and the National Parks Conservation Association.